unthinkable and the ineffable, and His nature is beyond
the reach of reason. The human soul reaches up to God,
not through thought, but by means of a mystical inner il-
lumination and revelation that transcends thought. God
cannot act directly upon the world, for this would involve
His defilement by matter and the limitation of His infinity.
There are therefore intermediate spiritual beings, who, as
the ministers of God, created and control the world. All
these intermediaries are included in the Logos, which is the
rational thought which governs the world. The relation of
God to the Logos, and of the Logos to the world, is one of
progressive emanation. Clearly the idea of emanation is a
mere metaphor which explains nothing, and this becomes
more evident when Philo compares the emanations to rays
of light issuing from an effulgent centre and growing less
and less bright as they radiate outwards. When we hear
this, we know in what direction we are moving. This has
the characteristic ring of Asiatic pseudo-philosophy. It re-
minds us forcibly of the Upanishads. We are passing out
of the realm of thought, reason, and philosophy, into the
dream-and-shadow-land of oriental mysticism, where the
heavy scents of beautiful poison flowers drug the intellect
and obliterate thought in a blissful and languorous repose.
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